Maine EPR for Packaging Law Close to Reality

In 2021, Maine adopted a first-in-the-nation Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) for Packaging law to reduce taxpayer costs and improve recycling by encouraging producers to create less wasteful packaging.

Put simply: It’s unfair that Maine taxpayers and communities are on the hook for the wasteful packaging produced by large companies—much of it single-use plastic—that ends up in our waste stream or polluting our environment.

The Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has proposed draft regulations that will define what this landmark policy looks like (view a PDF overview of DEP’s proposal). In early 2024, the Board of Environmental Protection (BEP) is expected to finish up the process of reviewing and voting on the draft policy.

In testimony before the BEP, the Natural Resources Council of Maine (NRCM) urged Commissioners to adopt the regulations with some minor amendments to strengthen the program and ensure Mainers benefit to the maximum extent possible.

EPR for Packaging will Provide Much-Needed Financial Support to Maine Municipalities

For decades, Maine taxpayers and municipalities have been responsible for finding solutions to packaging they have little or no control over. About 30-40% of the materials managed by towns are packaging waste, costing Maine taxpayers at least $16 million each year.¹

With limited options and rising costs for managing these materials, many Maine communities have been forced to suspend or cut back their recycling programs, sending these materials to landfills instead. With landfills throughout the state nearing capacity, this temporary solution is creating another expensive problem for Maine people:  expanding existing landfills.

EPR for Packaging contains ambitious yet attainable goals to achieve statewide community participation with investments that will make recycling more accessible and affordable for everyone.

The DEP’s proposed rules allow a Stewardship Organization (SO) to provide a thorough assessment of Maine’s recycling landscape and identify areas where communities could use more support to get their programs operating efficiently and effectively.

Once implemented, this law will provide major benefits for all Maine communities, regardless of their level of participation in the EPR for Packaging program. It offers robust financial incentives for producers to streamline packaging, minimizing waste and toxicity, and enhancing recyclability. Even communities who need more time to successfully implement a full recycling program in their town will experience improvements in the design and collection of packaging materials.

Maine Communities and Maine People Support EPR for Packaging

The EPR for Packaging law was passed with bipartisan support. It was championed by dozens of communities around the state and thousands of Maine people.

• 79% of Maine voters support the EPR for Packaging law, according to a 2022 poll.
• 23 Maine municipalities, representing more than 280,000 Maine residents, adopted municipal resolutions urging Maine to adopt an EPR for Packaging law.²
• Nearly 2,500 Mainers signed a petition in 2021 urging lawmakers to enact an EPR for Packaging law.³

EPR for Packaging is Necessary to Meet Maine’s Recycling Goals

Despite decades of effort, Maine has yet to achieve its recycling target of 50%. EPR for Packaging presents a tangible solution, drawing inspiration from successful models worldwide. Countries with established EPR frameworks boast impressive recovery rates, many achieving 60% and 70% recycling, highlighting the program’s potential to reshape Maine’s recycling landscape.

Maine has More than 40 Years of Experience with EPR Programs

We know this will work because we already have a record of success. Maine’s experience with EPR extends beyond packaging, with successful programs managing various products, including beverage containers, rechargeable batteries, mercury-containing products, electronics, paint, and pharmaceuticals. These initiatives have yielded high recycling rates, some exceeding 75% recovery, and reduced landfilling of problematic materials.

Overall, NRCM Supports DEP’s Proposed Rules

Managing packaging in Maine is complex, requiring a comprehensive approach to accommodate the diverse ways that Maine communities collect, sort, process, ship, and dispose of these materials. The DEP has completed a thorough assessment of this landscape, with proposed rules that extensively cover all aspects of packaging management and provide producers with the opportunity to reduce their overall fees with better packaging design.

Some large producers may voice opposition to these rules, request exemptions, and provide excuses to avoid the increased accountability, yet many of those same companies adhere to programs just like this in other countries, and Maine lawmakers have clearly established that a similar approach is needed here. In this context, we support the DEP’s decision not to provide exemptions to certain categories of producers.

Many states are looking at Maine as we finalize rules for this program. This means we have the opportunity to live up to our Dirigo motto and lead.

While NRCM is overall very supportive of the proposed rules and appreciates DEP’s commitment of time and effort to incorporate feedback from stakeholders, we do have four recommendations that we would like the Board to consider.

• The provision in the proposed rule that only reimburses per-ton costs for packaging disposed of in incinerators creates unfair advantages for communities with access to such facilities, and specifically provides less financial support for management of packaging in rural and northern areas of our state. The rules must be amended to reflect costs for all methods of disposal or refocus incentives and allocate producer fees to the development of recycling and reuse infrastructure that will actually reduce waste.
• The rules should be amended to require third-party verification or specific certification requirements for use of post-consumer recycled content and lack of toxins within product packaging.
• The draft rules propose a very limited set of disposal audits of the municipal waste stream every 10 years, with 3 randomly selected municipalities. We strongly encourage an amendment to require these audits to be either scaled in size or increased in frequency to create a more representative sample of the municipal waste stream. We will need quality data to make this program successful.
• In compliance with this law, producers must report details about their packaging. To ensure accurate data collection, we suggest third-party audits by the SO for at least two producer groups annually, as is already done with other EPR programs in Maine. We also suggest that the Department establishes a mechanism for enforcing compliance in the event of underreporting from producers.

On behalf of our 30,000 supporters in all Maine’s 16 counties and beyond, NRCM applauds the BEP’s commitment to deliberating on these rules and anticipates their successful implementation. And we thank DEP staff for their hard work in developing the proposed rules.

Maine’s EPR for Packaging law will provide Maine communities with the support they need to maintain and strengthen their recycling programs while reducing the flood of wasteful packaging that is harming our environment.

—Vanessa Berry, NRCM Sustainable Maine Program Manager

 

1 Maine Department of Environmental Protection’s 2019 Annual Product Stewardship Report

2 NRCM Municipal Resolutions for EPR

3 NRCM EPR Petition Signatures and Comments